The present invention relates to a method for eliminating duplicate or unnecessary messages in a message delivery system. More particularly, it relates to a method for accepting documents from a variety of sources via a plurality of media, forwarding the received documents to a plurality of recipients through their preferred communications mode/channel, personalizing/condensing documents, and suppressing the delivery of follow-up documents to those recipients who have responded to an earlier notification/message.
Businesses today rely on their messaging systems more than ever before. Most corporations generally correspond with their employees in a variety of communication formats and media which include, for example, telephonic communications, facsimile, e-mail, and delivery of hardcopies, to name a few. There is no doubt that these corporate-to-employee communications, sometimes also referred to as business-to-employee (B2E) communications, generate an extraordinary amount of paper documents to employees Appendix xe2x80x9cAxe2x80x9d is an incomplete listing of general distribution communications that an employee of a company would typically receive.
These communications vary in importance from mass distribution informational notices to confidential personalized communications of importance to the individual employee. Typically, business-to-employee communications may include shareholder communications, communications related to healthcare and insurance, training materials, organizational announcements, and also information related to various departments/divisions, to name a few as non-limiting examples.
Often times, a notification or a message is followed by numerous updates and reminders. These updates and reminders are sent regardless of whether the recipient responds immediately or never responds. Most of these communications are sent in a default format and by means of a default communication medium which is adopted as a policy within a corporation, and thus a recipient has no say in requesting notification in a medium of recipient""s choice.
At times, documents are even sent by both e-mail and in hard copy in an effort to reach the population of employees using e-mail as well as those receiving only hard copy; inevitably there is overlap in these mailing lists leading to duplication of messages, loss of corporate credibility, and wasted employee time. Furthermore, currently there is no provision to eliminate delivery of duplicate information or information that is clearly not valued by the recipient. For example, such inappropriate information could include employee clinic announcements of PAP tests (in the case of male employees), announcements of prostate cancer tests (in the case of women) or even employee athletic announcements (in the case of non-athletes). Thus, there is a need to reduce document distribution costs while improving delivery speed, accuracy, and effectiveness.
Closed loop messaging systems in the area of marketing have existed for quite some time wherein business entities have been known to send repeated subscription renewal notices to customers until the customer renews the subscription. The delivery of renewal notices to customers is stopped once a customer renews the subscription. An example, for instance, could be a communications campaign to encourage employees to join a travel service. Multiple messages to employees after they have heeded this xe2x80x9ccall to actionxe2x80x9d and joined the service only serve to annoy the employees, waste time and effort, reduce corporate credibility, and xe2x80x9ccry wolfxe2x80x9d. There is a risk that employees will disregard future important communications from the same source.
Multimedia or hybrid messaging systems are also known in the prior art. For example, Pitney Bowes Streamwaver(trademark) and Pitney Bowes Digital Document Delivery (D3)(trademark) system allow a single document print stream to be split and distributed through various media.
It is also known to provide notifications to users of messages located in their message mailboxes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,594 to Shaffer et al. discloses a system and method for notifying a user of an awaiting message. In Shaffer, the user is first provided with a notification which is different for different types of messages, and it is repeated if the user fails to respond to the notification. The repeating occurs until the user responds to the notification, and then it is repeated after a predetermined period of time, and a user is then informed of the awaiting message located in user""s mailbox. Although Shaffer""s invention can be used in any other type of multimedia messaging system (e.g., facsimile, e-mail, video), it merely supplements or eliminates the need for message waiting lights and stutter dial tones.
The prior art fails to teach or suggest a closed-loop multimedia (hybrid) messaging system capable of accepting messages/documents from a variety of sources, and in a plurality of formats via a plurality of communication media; and forwarding the received document(s)/message(s) to a plurality of recipients through their preferred mode of communication in their preferred format. Therefore, there is a need not only to eliminate delivery of redundant or duplicate information, or information that a recipient is not interested in, but also to facilitate delivery of information to a recipient in a format that conforms to the choice of the recipient. The closed-loop multimedia (hybrid) messaging system of the present invention offers an effective solution overcoming the problems encountered by the prior art.
According to the invention, a closed-loop multimedia(hybrid) messaging system and method are provided for accepting documents from a variety of sources in a plurality of formats via a plurality of media, forwarding the received documents/messages to a plurality of recipients through their preferred mode of communication, personalizing/condensing documents, and suppressing the delivery of follow-up documents to those recipients who have responded to an earlier notification/message.
A preferred embodiment of the system includes a communications system that is capable of receiving input from a plurality of sources in a variety of formats via a variety of communication media. The communications system is further capable of forwarding the received information to a plurality of recipients in a plurality of formats via a plurality of media. Each sender selects recipients individually or by defining the desired parameters (e.g. location, job description) for each of the recipients. The recipients may also be selected from a pre-existing distribution list. A database system that is in communication with the communications system is provided for storing information pertaining to recipients including their address and preferences.
Each of the plurality of recipients may update their preferences in the database system regarding the medium of communication, location of preferred delivery (e.g. home or work e-mail address), and document delivery formats. The database is typically prepopulated with default settings (e.g. e-mail addresses for employees currently receiving e-mail, paper delivery for employees without a known e-mail address).
The closed-loop message delivery system further includes a reporting and control system for controlling the production and regeneration of documents using the data received by the communications system. The received data can be processed in an accounting system in order to generate accounting information for charging back to respective entities requesting message delivery services if desired for that business unit. Feedback responses from various recipients are tracked by a tracking system and follow-up documents or messages seeking response on the same topic are suppressed to those recipients who have responded to an earlier related notification or message.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, wherein only the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.